


Normal Androids

by Daegaer



Series: Pretend to be Human [31]
Category: Saiyuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Arguments, Friendship, Lies, M/M, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:34:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28672308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: Goku and Sanzo are on edge and primed for arguing.
Relationships: Cho Hakkai/Sha Gojyo
Series: Pretend to be Human [31]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1152416
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Normal Androids

Gojyo looked silently at the countryside passing outside the windows of the Jeep. Goku was asleep, which was a relief, because he couldn't bear to have him watching him. Everything was quiet, and the journey was much smoother now that Sanzo was allowing Hakkai to drive again. The first twenty kilometres had been horrific; they'd mainly been going uphill over uneven terrain and Sanzo really didn't know how to drive. At least his cursing had mostly drowned out the little sounds of distress Hakkai had been making over every clash of gears or whack of a pebble against the windshield.

Gojyo stopped himself from physically drooping. Hakkai could act upset about the damn Jeep's welfare? Fuck him. He glared at the scenery as long as he could, but felt the anger ebbing away again no matter how he tried to maintain it. Hakkai wasn't the one who'd overrode his own safety systems to physically attack an ally. He might be a smart-mouthed shit like most high-end androids but that didn't mean he deserved to be attacked. High-end bastards being bastards was normal; security androids attacking allies wasn't.

He let himself relax a little. They were both being punished. They both deserved it for their actions in the inn, even if Gojyo felt he might deserve it a bit more for starting everything. But now they could both just ignore each other, like Sanzo said. It would be peaceful enough and he could concentrate on what he was actually programmed to do. It would be a blessed return to normality and both their systems would settle down.

" _Sir_ ," Hakkai said, breaking the silence, " _The instruments indicate an open area ahead. It might be suitable for a rest point for you and Master Goku. The sensors say the air is clean._ "

"It's only mid-afternoon," Sanzo said.

" _Sir, the light will begin to fail in approximately ninety minutes and there is no guarantee that -_ "

"Yes. Fine," Sanzo snapped. "Get to this place and stop. My previous orders stand, you hear me, both of you?"

" _Yes, sir_."

" _Yes. Sir._ "

Hakkai drove carefully a little further and parked on a flattish bit of ground. He and Gojyo got out and surveyed the site, not even looking at each other. It looked OK to Gojyo – some small bushes to give shelter from the wind, no hint of anyone else in the area. He still went all around a wide perimeter, dropping their movement-sensor alarms and heading up the path by himself to see what lay ahead. More of the same loose rubble and steep slope. Sanzo really couldn't be allowed to take the wheel in the morning. He went back to camp and found Hakkai had already lit a small fire, more for Goku's visual pleasure it seemed, than anything else. The kid was huddled up close to it, though it couldn't be providing much heat.

Hakkai went and pulled the tent down, waiting for Gojyo to come to help. They erected it without ever looking each other in the face. For once the damn thing co-operated, emerging from its package and driving its spikes into the ground without being threatened. It made its annoying _ping_ of a job well done and sat squatly in the middle of everything, a big neon eyesore. Hakkai silently went back to the fire and heated up some food.

After Sanzo and Goku had eaten, Hakkai scoured out their bowls and put everything away except for the pot of tea and their cups. Sanzo was sucking tea down like it was his real vocation in life, while Goku stared miserably into his cup.

"Have you two apologised to each other?" Goku said suddenly.

"Leave them alone," Sanzo said indistinctly around a cigarette.

"They should apologise. Hakkai, tell Gojyo you don't think he's stupid!"

" _Yes, Master Goku. Gojyo, you know I don't truly think -_ "

"Damn it! For once, Goku, listen to me! Leave the damn androids alone. If they hadn't been encouraged to act like your storybook bots maybe they wouldn't have embarrassed us in the first place!"

Goku stared at him, open-mouthed.

"I didn't encourage them to act like anything," he said, sounding astonished.

"You're always doing it! Saying _please_ and _thank you_ , treating Gojyo like he's some sort of yokel employed by the monastery or Hakkai like he's an actual _teacher_. You have fucking conversations with them, Goku! It's not normal. I just want you to act like a normal kid, that's all I've ever tried to get you to do."

Goku seemed to be finding it difficult to properly access oxygen, from the way he was gasping. He wiped his eyes and took a deep, stuttering breath.

"At least I'm polite," he said, sounding younger than he was. "There's nothing wrong in being polite, Sanzo, all the other monks always wanted me to be polite."

"I never cared about that. Those old farts –"

"Gojyo and Hakkai have risked their lives for us! And Gojyo took care of me for years! And Hakkai knows everything! Why shouldn't I talk to them? At least they _want_ to talk to me."

"They don't want anything," Sanzo said wearily. "You just trip some fucking line of code that sets off some response. They're not people."

Goku looked at him in horror. "They are. Androids are people, Sanzo, even if they're not like you and me – some of the other monks said I wasn't a person either, remember? They were wrong too."

Sanzo stared at him and said, "What? There's no way you can remember –"

Goku sprang up and ran from the campfire. One of the perimeter alarms blared as he ran past. Sanzo shot upright, then followed him into the darkness.

"Goku? Goku!"

Gojyo stood there a moment, then went after them. Maybe they'd tripped an automatic response in him and he couldn't help it. Maybe he just didn't want them falling off the mountain in the dark. He had the advantage, having the option to scan for heat sources. It was still almost twenty minutes before he saw anything, and he wondered if they had both somehow flown away. He found Goku first, hiding behind some bushes much further up the slope.

" _Goku. It's. Me. Please. Come. Down. It's. Cold._ "

Goku made an odd gulping noise and wrapped his arms tighter around himself. Gojyo turned on a light and could clearly see the kid had been crying. Well, shit. He sat in the freezing mud beside him and put a warm arm around him. It was to provide heat. It was not contravening Sanzo's orders to act like a normal android.

" _Thanks. For. The. Moral. Support. Kid,_ " he said. " _In. The. Great. Uprising. You'll. Be. Spared._ "

Goku did his best to laugh. It wasn't convincing.

"So what line of code did I trip to get you to make a joke?" he said.

" _Didn't. You. Know. I. Used. To. Be. A. Stand-Up. Comedy. Android?_ " He got a warning buzz for that from one of the settings he'd enabled; he was exhibiting too much personality. He was obeying previous orders to look after Goku, he firmly instructed his systems. Sanzo had never actually given those orders an end date. He felt all the warnings calm down as Goku leaned against him.

"You are a person," Goku muttered.

" _So. Your. Novels. Say. Feeling. Better?_ "

"No. Sanzo wants everything to be so quiet and boring, Gojyo. I have to be a normal kid, you're not a person - he should be more open-minded! All the other monks were rude about him becoming Sanzo, he told me! Just because he was young and they thought Master Koumyou made a mistake! He knows being boring and normal isn't worthwhile."

The kid was getting worryingly cold. Gojyo carefully got them both to their feet.

" _He's. The. Boss. OK. Let's. Go. Back._ "

He got Goku back to the campfire without complaint, and was glad to see Sanzo already there, looking pale and worried.

"Is he all right?" Sanzo said.

" _Yes. Sir._ "

"You little idiot," Sanzo muttered, rubbing Goku's hands between his own. "Talk to the damn androids all you want." He glared into Goku's face. "Don't whine at me about what some stupid old guys said in the past, either. None of them is worth listening to." He frowned, his hand at Goku's wrist. "Your heart rate is high. You'd better not be getting sick."

"I'm never sick," Goku said, and leaned right against Sanzo, like he'd done to Gojyo. The asshole must really have been worried, because the kid got a good ten seconds of something that might almost have been a hug.

Gojyo looked away from them to meet Hakkai's eyes. A hopeful, almost shy expression crossed Hakkai's face as Gojyo didn't look away again at once. Gojyo found that the habit of months made him want to believe it was sincere. Stupid.

Loud enough for Sanzo to hear he said,

" _You. Located. Master. Sanzo?_ "

" _Yes. He was attempting to find Master Goku. I am glad you brought him back._ "

" _I. Will. Fetch. Some. Instant. Soup._ "

"Don't use that up," Sanzo called. "Make some more tea."

Gojyo bowed and headed for the Jeep. As he passed, Hakkai smiled at him, like always.

" _I'm glad you found Goku so quickly, it's terribly cold at night,_ " he murmured.

Gojyo nodded, jerkily. They shouldn't talk, but this was just about Goku. It was all right. He fetched a block of the local tea, and frowned as Hakkai pulled a bottle from the food supplies as well.

" _For medicinal purposes, Master Sanzo?_ " Hakkai said, offering the bottle.

Sanzo poured it into his and Goku's tea, wordlessly. And again. The third cup got a smaller splash, and he handed the bottle back. Hakkai put it away, and kept the tea coming until both Sanzo and Goku looked warmer and more like themselves. They finally crawled into the tent and were silent.

" _Thanks. For. Finding. Master. Sanzo,_ " Gojyo said, because it was too weird to stand there with Hakkai watching him and not say anything at all.

Hakkai nodded.

" _He'd scrambled up there_ ," he said, pointing. " _He was standing on a rock ledge, not sure of where he was. I had to wait until he had brought himself back under control before I could tell him I was there._ "

" _The. Ledge. Was. That. Narrow? He's. Not. Usually. Scared. Of. Heights,_ " Gojyo said.

" _He was, ah, not emotionally controlled_."

Gojyo looked at him. Shit. They were having a conversation. But – no. Hakkai couldn't mean –

" _Sanzo. Doesn't. Cry. He's. Never. Cried._ "

Which when he thought about it was odd, given the way some of the older novices had treated the asshole when he was a kid. Master Koumyou had never put an android in charge of his favourite novice, and he'd been the target of every bully in the monastery until finally the kid got a hardened shell as impervious as steel and industrial porcelain, and learnt to give as good as he got. Which, Sanzo being Sanzo, had been at a pretty young age. Even the morning after the terrible attack and Master Koumyou's death, he hadn't cried. Gojyo remembered Sanzo as a kid, his face bone-white, his eyes sunken dark hollows, Koumyou's blood still all over him. Not one tear. The bastard was hard, through and through.

" _Why. Would. He. Do. That?_ " he said sceptically.

" _He'd driven away someone he loves_ ," Hakkai said. " _It's a terrible feeling_."

They looked at each other in silence, then went to stand guard at opposite ends of the campsite. Like normal androids.


End file.
